Betty Lundy

Betty Joy Mussell Lundy, age 89, of St. Paul, MN, and formerly of Sycamore, IL and LaGrange, IL, passed away on Tuesday, March 22, 2022 at The Alton Memory Care in St. Paul, MN.

Funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday, April 5 at the United Methodist Church in Churdan with Pastor David Arulnathan officiating. Music for the service will be by Mary Ross. Burial will be in the Highland Cemetery in Churdan.

Visitation will be held at the Churdan United Methodist Church from 10 – 10:45 a.m. on Tuesday prior to the service.

Funeral arrangements are under the direction of the Dahn and Woodhouse Funeral Home and online condolences may be left for Betty’s family at www.dahnandwoodhouse.com.  A photo gallery can be found here: https://jimlundy.smugmug.com/Betty-Lundy/n-WKTzgk/

Betty was born in DuPont, Georgia on Dec. 26, 1932 to Olin Waldo (Jim) Mussell and Dona Lee Smith Mussell. She lived to the age of 89 years and 46 days. She is survived by son Jim (Sherryl), daughter Sue (Chris), grandchildren Sean Lundy and Rose Lundy, grandson Nicholas Jankowski, and great-grand-daughter Fae Jankowski. She was preceded in death by husband Dale Thomas Lundy, and her parents.

Until the age of three, Betty and her parents lived in DuPont, Georgia. During these early years, her mother stayed home and her father was a lumber jack. At the height of the Depression, her father became unemployed. To find work, he joined other family members in northern Illinois. When he was hired at the Anaconda wire mill in Sycamore, Illinois, Betty and her mother moved north to reunite the family. She attended Sycamore primary and secondary schools, graduating from Sycamore High School in 1950 (class valedictorian, student year book editor).

After a memorable post-graduation summer spent de-tassling corn, she began college at Northern Illinois University in De Kalb, where she attended for a single year. The following year she transferred to the highly-ranked University of Missouri School of Journalism. In 1954 she graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism degree and moved to Chicago as a copy-editor for the Fair Store and eventually Sears Roebuck.

On Nov. 9, 1957 she married Dale Thomas Lundy at Sycamore Methodist Church. They lived on Chicago’s Near North Side while working downtown. In early 1959 they purchased a house in suburban La Grange, Illinois and began a family. Betty’s grown children are James Russell Lundy (born 1959) and Susan Marie Lundy (born 1961).

With young children, Betty stopped working and became a full-time mother. Both children attended La Grange schools. Betty was an involved parent, tutoring French, attending musical, theatrical and sporting events, always encouraging the effort that produces better grades. Betty and Dale took the children to the many cultural events that Chicago offers: musical and dance concerts, theatrical performances, and museums.

In her early 50’s, with both kids in college, she began writing again, completing free-lance stories for various publications on such varied topics as peatlands in northern Minnesota and the origin of the iconic Coca-Cola bottle design. Interesting people she interviewed included journalist Bob Woodward, and super-model Cindy Crawford. Eventually she returned to her journalistic roots to write for the Tempo DuPage section of the Chicago Tribune. There she published feature stories about various local artisans, whose artistry included wrought iron, stained glass, Hmong tapestries, basketry, and lace making. She also authored articles highlighting issues such as the environment, literacy, and hospice care. She wrote about other interesting topics also, such as a dinosaur-hunter at the University of Chicago, and (her favorite) the history of Fannie Mae chocolates.

In later years she and Dale enjoyed visits from the kids and grandkids, doing genealogy, and eating out. When the big house on Edgewood Avenue became unmanageable, she moved first to the Scottish Home in North Riverside, Illinois, and finally to The Alton Memory Care facility in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she spent her remaining days. She knew everybody and enjoyed helping newer residents feel at home. She was known as the resident most up on current events, and could often be seen reading her daily copy of the New York Times or her beloved Chicago Tribune in the Great Room.

Memorial donations can be made to The Ground Truth Project (thegroundtruthproject.org ), which serves under-covered communities by supporting the next generation of journalists to do on-the-ground reporting and to advance sustainability, innovation and equity in journalism worldwide.

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